RTÉ presenter Darragh McCullough and his wife Aoife have been denied re-entry to the EU with their newborn baby, who was born via a surrogate.
The Ear To The Ground presenter and his wife welcomed their first child, Grace, who was born via a surrogate nearly three weeks ago in Northern Cyprus.
But on Thursday, the Meath family was turned away at the United Nations buffer zone into the Republic of Cyprus.
‘[Grace] was actually born three weeks before her due date,’ Darragh told Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio One.
The couple booked themselves onto the next flight to Cyprus. In the North, which is under Turkish control, commercial surrogacy is legal but the couple were challenged when trying to cross into the south, which is under EU law.
‘I am dying to get home’ – journalist and broadcaster Darragh McCullough and wife refused entry into EU with Baby Grace, born via surrogacy https://t.co/RSoEXB4wug
— Irish Independent (@Independent_ie) March 28, 2025
‘When we got to the border the guards waved us away and the taxi driver informed us the law had changed a day before,’ said Darragh.
He added: ‘It’s all a mad mix of adrenaline and excitement and nervousness and terror and joy and at the end of maybe 15 years of trying to start a family.’
They hope to be home in ten days once they’ve secured more paperwork needed to cross the border.
‘Nothing is standard in terms of the process that is involved in surrogacy, it is quite sensitive so you just have to be patient,’ he added to the Independent.
